Live for Speed – Rockingham Now Available!

More than six years after making the initial announcement, the Live for Speed Development Team has finally released Rockingham Motor Speedway for their simulation!

More than six years after making the initial announcement, the Live for Speed Development Team has finally released Rockingham Motor Speedway for their simulation!

Announced back in September 2009, Rockingham is the first-ever laser-scanned track to be added to Live for Speed.

Located in Northhamptonshire, Rockingham Motor Speedway is best known as the UK’s host of two CART Grand Prix in 2001 and 2002. Aside from the 1.47 mile oval configuration that was used by CART, the track also includes a 1.94 mile road course and twelve other configurations used for various events.

Apart from the track, the new version update also introduces some graphical improvements and other changes as listed below.

Important: The new update requires the game’s S3 version license.

ChangelogNew Track :

Rockingham race track is now included – S3 license required

AI :

Now avoid ramming other cars when in the pit lane or lap of honour

Max drivers in single player increased to 24 (online max still 40)

Graphics :

New reflections system and shaders for cars and buildings

Nearby objects are visible in new dynamic reflections on cars

Option to set number of dynamic reflections in main view and mirror

Misc option to enable a programmable post-processing shader

Misc :

New command /rsh to reload shaders (e.g. after editing externally)

Maximum number of controllers increased to 10 (was previously 8)

VR :

HTC Vive headset is now supported through OpenVR

Oculus Rift support now requires runtime 0.7 or later

Improved dialog sequence after any error entering VR mode

Training lesson editor :

SHIFT+T on main entry screen to access lesson editor or list editor
Layouts for lessons must be copied from layout to training folder
SHIFT+T on training screen to view and test newly added lessons
Fixes :

This is giving me a good excuse to fire up LFS again…I tip my hat to the small team here, they do make good looking tracks.

What

Too little too late. Ok, let me rephrase that. Waaaaaaaaaay too late.

Adam Špaček

Never expected to live long enough to experience release of this track! 🙂

steve30x

They expect me to pay for the S3 licence when theres no sign of them releasing S3. That aint going to happen. I haven’t played LFS in a long time anyway.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/i-paliog/ Ioannis

+1 It sounds like a bad joke, there is absolutely not even one image that shows “work on progress” and also consider that :
1)took them 6.5 years to release Rockingham since the first anouncement,
2)more than 8 years NOT to release the new tyre model and Scirocco
3) exactly 4 years since the first S3 upgrade mention and they didn’t produce a single screenshot.

dd101

“Although S3 content is already being developed, we cannot provide a guarantee that it will be released.”
Must be a joke, to return like that. Content editor and STEAM release (with current content) could save it till they add more GFX and physics improvements they stuck on.

http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

That statement shows to me that there’s no passion in there any more. The fire has long since died and it’s being clung onto by it’s fingertips.
That’s the impression I get from it anyway and perhaps it should be allowed to bow out gracefully.

David Hughes

I think you may be right. The VR aspect has clearly reignited something in Scawen but he wouldn’t be the first or last to have their flame extinguished chasing a better tyre model.

http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

I think you’re right about the VR. It needs more than just a better tyre model though I reckon.

stef4o23

I beg to differ guys! IMO LFS still has the best physics for road cars! It just feels how a real car feels – it’s hard to explain! It’s one of those sims where if you have a friend who races in real life sit on your rig and play, he’ll get used to very easily and start playing around with the car. The car behaves and reacts as you would expect! It’s hard to say that for a lot of other sims!
Having said that, it’s boring – it doesn’t lack in the physics department nor graphics! It lacks in content! That’s why I’d much rather spend my time elsewhere (GT6, iRacing)

I wish the developers would make it moddable! As it is, it’s only useful to drift guys.. :/

http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

I never mentioned the physics. It’s lack of attention is letting it down. It’s not a physics debate.
It’s good that this one got a new laser-scanned track in it’s update, but where is the Sirocco ? Why are they not guaranteeing an S3 release ? Maybe they need to start something new to get the creative juices flowing again.

http://conticreative.com/ Mario Strada

I hear the next version may feature a vintage VW car called a “Scirocco”. A car from an era when people still drove their own cars and they had internal combustion engines instead of Fusion Drives.

Kendra Jacobs

I think it’s the best for open wheel cars tied with nkp.

Patrik Marek

if you polish your tire model for 10 years, yeah It can get pretty good even if it’s using old equations , even more so when you don’t add new cars
GTR2 also feels very nice to this day, but it’s not on par with modern sims

and yes, lack of content and poor visuals make this unable to compete against others like iRacing, Asssetto Corsa, rFacotr or pCARS

It was good in it’s time (visually average but not poor) and in the physics it spiralled new approach to sims and re-ignited the sim racing in a way, we wouldn’t necessary have modern sims if it wasn’t for LFS

but yeah, I don’t expect anything spectacular to happen,
if they put it on steam for something like $5 it might sell some,

as far as modding, I thought it is moddable, becasue I have seen other cars in it ?

stef4o23

Patrick I don’t know where you come from, but LFS felt great from its inception! Up to this day it’s still one of the most realistic sims out there!
P.s: Physics in real life haven’t changed for the past 20 years – why would lfs’s change?
Not perfect of course (issues with tyre temps) but it’s definitely among the best!
Visually looks very nice – if it had more real life content it would probably be the No1 sim out there!

Patrik Marek

computing power changed, algorythms to simulate tires changed, that why something new can be quite abit different to 10 year old sim

Lachlan Salter

honestly mate, sell the rights to someone who will actually DO something with this sim, or just make it more accessible to modders

Ricoo

I still keep hope Scawen did not give up on the new tire model. The holy graal is coming. 🙂

With a bit more content I could even buy the licence I was waiting so long I forgot I was waiting for it. 🙂

I was 41 when I started in LFS. Now I’m 52. I have no expectations for nothing. I upgrade S3 yesterday, with no hopes to have it one day.

TC

In my opinion Rockingham is best know for hosting a BTCC weekend since 2003.

I also agree that 12 pounds (16,5 euros in my country) is way too expensive for a single track and “maybe more”.

Patrik Marek

so maybe another 20 years or so and this game can get updated graphics and be finally finished

Kendra Jacobs

Handles better than most sims

Kev

As is, this sim feels as good as any other and in some ways better than others. Will never understand need for graphics. All I need to see is where edges of track are and brake point references.

MC

In what decade are we talking about?

Kendra Jacobs

Agree

Patrik Marek

well that’s fine, people have different preferences. you don’t have to understand everyhting, but I think it’s pretty obvious

the whole goal of this is to make it as realsitc as possible, and visuals play part of that too, if it visually tells you – well this is still game – your brain will never cross that line to think that you are in real car , simple as that

Kev

I wouldn’t sacrifice 1% of physics for 500% improvement in graphics

Patrik Marek

good for you
I would easily do it

how does the physics realism work if the cars are not licensed / fantasy?

Kev

Who said anything about realism?

Patrik Marek

so what does you 1% of physics meant to mean than, if not how realistic it is ?